


Itty Bitty Love

by Lalelilolu



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Discord: Malec Server, Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, M/M, Magnus Bane is a little bit petty, Mini soulmates, Nail Polish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:21:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26579014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lalelilolu/pseuds/Lalelilolu
Summary: It wasn’t unusual for warlocks to go without a mini-soulmate for a few decades. It came with the immortality. What were fifty or seventy years alone when you had living multiple lifetimes with your destined love, who was equally immortal more often than not, lurking around the corner?
Relationships: Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood
Comments: 16
Kudos: 220
Collections: Mini soulmates





	Itty Bitty Love

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Tiny Soulmates](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26358028) by [SomeSleepySloth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SomeSleepySloth/pseuds/SomeSleepySloth). 
  * Inspired by [Orion's watching over you](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26453470) by [slyvir](https://archiveofourown.org/users/slyvir/pseuds/slyvir). 



> All the thanks to my amazing beta [AceOnIce](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AceOnIce/pseuds/AceOnIce)!  
> This story was inspired by the mini soulmates idea from the [Malec Discord-Server](https://discordapp.com/channels/573633851436564510/693296576747012138/716063040055017574) and the wonderful stories already written with that concept. (Can it be a trope already? I need more mini soulmates in my life.)
> 
> The whole concept was inspired by this wonderful fanart [here](https://twitter.com/youdorahachibei/status/1302584262965698560?s=20)!  
> 

Magnus’ mini-soulmate was in the middle of one of his “Jungle-Gym” training sessions somewhere on Magnus’ body when he finished brewing the last potion for the day. It wasn’t a complicated one, it just needed constant supervision so Magnus could ensure the best possible quality. So he observed it during the entirety of the brewing process. Magnus had a reputation after all; he would not lose it by delivering a less than perfect product to one of his naggiest customers.

It was still early in the evening but he didn’t want to go out to Pandemonium. Today had left him exhausted, dealing with seelies all day had that effect on him. Plus, when he looked down he saw Mini happily climbing up one of his necklaces like it was a rope in one of the shadowhunter training rooms and Magnus loathed to interrupt him, even if he’d get to see a cute annoyed, scrunched up face. With all the training Mini went through Magnus was fairly certain his soulmate was a shadowhunter. Not to mention the little runes peeking from underneath his collar and sleeves.

Originally he hadn’t known what to do when Mini first appeared, a baby clad in diapers, until it dawned on him that his soulmate must’ve been born. Magnus had been elated when he’d realized that. He’d spent hundreds of years afraid he’d be alone his whole life until one day the tiny mini-baby just appeared, swimming in his tea cup.

It wasn’t unusual for warlocks to go without a mini-soulmate for a few decades. It came with the immortality. What were fifty or seventy years alone when you had living multiple lifetimes with your destined love, who was equally immortal more often than not, lurking around the corner? Just an uncomfortable blink of the eye in the grand scheme of things. It rarely took as long as it had for Magnus, so sometimes he’d wondered if his soulmate had died before he was even born. Or if he even had one. In some of his darkest moments he’d wondered if he even had a soul.

So when Mini had appeared he’d made sure to take good care of him and keep him close at all times. Magnus had known it would take some years until his soulmate was old enough for Magnus to recognize him or even meet him. He’d waited so long already; Magnus was every bit excited and impatient but for the sake of his soulmate and their future relationship he waited nonetheless.

Mini had started to grow and form a personality and Magnus did everything to accommodate his little companion. He started wearing coats with breast pockets exclusively the moment he found out that seemed to be Mini’s favourite hiding place. Mini liked to hide a lot.

After the first decade with him it became clear to Magnus that his soulmate was a shy but serious little fella. He always scurried when people came to the loft unexpectedly and therefore was not already huddled safely in Magnus’ pocket. More than once, he had found Mini cowering behind furniture or in a dark corner of the room after his visitors left, hiding away from the world.

Magnus asked himself what that said about his soulmate but decided not to fret over it, there was nothing he could’ve done in those moments anyway, so he had started placing little boxes in well hidden places all around the loft to make sure that Mini was comfortable in his home at all times.

Now, roughly sixteen years after Mini first appeared, they had their established routine and Magnus couldn’t be happier. Well yes he could be, if he’d already meet his soulmate, but that would be a whole other kind of happiness.

After dinner, Magnus sat down at his vanity table and gazed down at his finger. The nail polish was a bit chipped, despite the magic reinforcement he liked to put on it. With a deep sigh he used an elaborate gesture to remove every trace of the worn polish before summoning his stash of nail polish bottles, one more glittery than the other.

Mini peeked out of his breast pocket and started the climb down before Magnus offered him his hand. Mini jumped on it and used the way down as a balancing exercise. Always training, his little shadowhunter.

Magnus’ mini-soulmate eyed the colourful bottles in front of him while Magnus started to take off his rings. He piled them up in front of Mini who abandoned the colourful bottles and instead dragged the rings to Magnus’ jewellery case one after the other. It made Magnus smile, he loved it when his companion helped him with things like that. It made doing simple things without magic so much sweeter.

“Alright, which colour do you think I should put on today, darling?” Mini stared at the bottles again, brows creased. He looked so adorable when he concentrated hard. Eventually Mini strode towards a relatively tame coloured, midnight blue bottle after looking between Magnus’ colourful hair strands and the bottles several times, then promptly proceeded to try and drag the bottle over to Magnus.

Magnus had to bite his lips to hold back laughter because the bottle was half as tall as Mini and probably weighed the same. He wanted to help, but Magnus knew Mini would just get all grumpy and frowny. While that was adorable, Magnus was aiming for a bright smile tonight. 

Mini eventually put down the bottle in front of Magnus with a proud huff and stared at him expectantly, so Magnus gently stroked over Mini’s head with a finger before opening the bottle and taking the brush in his hand. He could do it with magic if he wanted to but sometimes mundane things like putting on make-up, showering, and getting dressed by hand gave him a sense of normalcy he wouldn’t achieve otherwise.

Mini started tugging on the hand holding the brush before Magnus could get to work and stared at him before pointing to the polish, Magnus’ nails, and then himself with a very stern expression.

“Do you want to try and paint my nails?”

A determined nod.

“Okay darling, how about I show you how you do it on one finger and then you have nine other fingers to practice on, does that sound good?”

Mini nodded again, leaning forward and watching closely as Magnus dipped the brush into the glass bottle. “You want to make sure you have enough polish on the brush. See, like this and then you put the brush close to the nail bed and stroke outwards.” He demonstrated it on his left index finger. “Try not to touch skin or it’ll look a bit disorderly and always stroke in one direction.” Mini nodded dutifully, the creased brows back on his face and Magnus swore he could’ve died from the sweetness. He had the best soulmate.

Mini carefully took the brush from Magnus’ hand and dipped it into the glass bottle with some difficulties, but he managed to get some polish on it; maybe all that shadowhunter training was good for something after all. Magnus spread his left hand and Mini plopped down in front of it. A little pink tongue peeked out between his lips as the tip of the brush made contact with Magnus’ thumbnail (and a little bit of skin). He focused on dragging the brush towards his stomach, clutching the cap tightly, leaving a trail of midnight blue on the nail before setting the brush next to the previous streak to drag it down a second time. 

Mini set the brush down next to him. The crease between his eyes deepened as he compared his own work on the thumb to Magnus’ on the index finger. Mini stared at the polish that stained Magnus’ skin like it had offended him personally before letting out a huff and dragging the brush back to its container to dip it in again.

By the time he was finished with Magnus’ left hand, Mini had found the best technique to stick the brush in the bottle and safely transport it to Magnus’ fingers. He proceeded to work on the right hand, just as determined and when that hand was finished too, Mini even managed to avoid staining Magnus’ skin at all.

“They are very pretty, my dear, thank you.” Mini preened visibly and looked very proud of himself, his little ears flushing red. His mini-soulmate always reacted in the most adorable way to compliments. “Now I’ll just dry them real quick and then we’ll get ready for bed. That good?” Mini smiled at him and nodded. Magnus magicked the nail polish dry and the both of them into their sleepwear before tucking himself into bed. Mini nestled himself into Magnus’ hair before they both drifted off to sleep.

\--

“I’ll be back for dinner but I need to take care of this, keep an eye on him for me, yeah?” Alec nodded towards mini-Magnus’ and brushed a hasty kiss against Magnus’ forehead, then rushed out through the front door of their loft. 

Mini-Alec and mini-Magnus were currently occupied in one of their little games that no one understood but them. It was still entertaining to watch because it occurred fairly often that one would start to pout seemingly out of blue and then the other would cave and suddenly both were smiling again. Neither Magnus nor Alec had found out the pattern yet. Or if the game even had rules.

Magnus watched them for a little while longer, which was a good thing, because some time in the afternoon they abandoned their little game, seemingly bored by it, in favour of raiding Magnus’ nail polish collection. That, in itself, was completely fine, but since, what Alec and he called the ‘glitter incident’, the minis weren’t allowed to use the nail polish without supervision anymore.

The mini version of himself swirled his hand and the bottle with the intended colour shrunk down to an appropriate size for mini-Alec to handle and for mini-Magnus’ itty bitty nails. Since that first time that Magnus had let mini-Alec paint his nails his little companion had become a pro, refusing to let anyone else, not even Alexander, paint Magnus’ nails.

It was mesmerizing to watch the two like that. They were in complete harmony, it didn’t even matter that they couldn’t talk. Mini-Alec, a deep frown on his face, completely concentrating on painting nails while mini-Magnus watched his companion with utter adoration in his eyes. Maybe that was why he knew when to reposition a finger or stretch the digits a bit more or maybe it was the fact that as an extension of his soul and mirror of Magnus’ very self, he was just in as deep for mini-Alec as Magnus was for Alexander and wanted to read every wish from the other’s lips as badly.

When mini-Alec added the finishing touches in forest green to mini-Magnus’ last nail, Alec came stumbling into their home with a red face. He was mumbling underneath his breath about ‘stupid Clave dinosaurs’ and ‘waiting for them to die out’. That seemed to rip mini-Alec out of his good mood as well, probably because his concentration was broken by the slamming door and he didn’t have anything else to concentrate on anymore. Not that Alexander “I have manners, Magnus, I don’t slam doors” Lightwood would ever slam doors. 

“So I take it that the surprise envoy wasn’t as nice or competent as Lydia?” Magnus said while offering a hug to Alec, which the other man promptly accepted.

“Don’t even start,” Alec huffed and buried his face between Magnus’ neck and shoulder to calm himself down.

“It’s time for dinner soon anyway. So, how about you tell me about all those dinosaurs over some good food. How do you feel about some of that tomato soup from the bistro down the street?”

“You know how to woo a man.” Magnus could practically hear the small smile in Alexander’s voice. 

Magnus continued to sway around the room with Alec in his arms to soft music all the while keeping an eye out for the minis in case they got up to some more shenanigans, like that one time they decided the chandelier was a perfect substitute for a carousel. Long story short, it was not a suitable substitute and Magnus once again had been reminded why he hated that the mini version of himself could tap into his magic a bit more than was usual for warlock-minis. Right now, however, the two scoundrels seemed to be done with mischief.

They had moved to the table, clearly waiting for dinner time, and mini-Magnus was trying to cheer up a pouty mini-Alec by spraying blue sparks everywhere. Alec had once told him that his mini had always done that for him when he was sad as a child. He still did it nowadays sometimes; when Magnus wasn’t available and Alec never forgot to remind Magnus afterwards how beautiful his magic was.

But today all the antics seemed to be for naught, the Alec in his arms wasn’t fairing much better, despite all the swaying and whispered words of love he was still incredibly tense.

They sat down for dinner eventually, but after two spoons of the soup, which Alec normally inhaled, he stated that he wasn’t hungry anymore and put down his spoon. Mini-Alec was slouched against the soup bowl with his back to Alec and looked just as unhappy. The distorted mirror image they created would’ve been adorable, if they didn’t look like misery incarnate. It was frustrating, but Magnus knew he wouldn’t give up. His Alexander just needed to talk it out, a warm bath, and maybe some private time in their bed.

He  _ almost  _ wished he wouldn't have made that decision so consciously because he practically saw the light bulb going off over mini-Magnus’ head and he suppressed a groan. He was scared of the antics his smaller self would get up to. He knew his mini-self, he knew himself and prayed.

Mini-Magnus got up from his spot on Alec’s shoulder and marched down his arm with confidence, making a beeline for mini-Alec. Mini-Magnus planted himself in front of his counterpart and took off one of the necklaces adorning his chest before closing the clasp behind mini-Alec’s neck and pressing a kiss to his cheek.

Mini-Alec’s face lit up like their last christmas tree (courtesy of their minis, of course). Magnus’ gaze swept up to Alec’s face when the shadowhunter made cooing noises. He had watched their mini versions as well and judging by his face and how excitedly mini-Alec showed Alec his new necklace, mini-Magnus had managed to cheer both of them up more than Magnus did that evening. 

Magnus was glad to see the first real smile on Alexander’s face tonight at last.

Magnus narrowed his eyes at his mini-me. How dare he. Magnus would show his mini-me who the boss in this loft was- he’d give Alec a better necklace, one which would make him smile even brighter.

Alec caught his eyes and furrowed his brows. “Why are you pouting Magnus?”

“I’m not pouting.” Magnus took a sip from his wine glass. “Eat up before the soup gets cold, darling.”

Alec sent him a small smile. “Alright.” And despite his previous statement, he ravished the bowl.

Magnus glared a bit at his smaller self. Oh he would show him who made Alec the happiest. And who gifted the best necklaces.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, comments would make my day ♥  
> Constructive criticism welcome :)


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